Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Another part of our back yard patio project was fixing up the deck. I suppose you could almost call this project more of a backyard remodel. In my last post I showed you a step/landing I built to bridge the gap between our patio and the deck. Today’s post is all about (and around) the deck. In the picture below…

Here is the second of the two hand drawn sketches of my winter garden layout. The first one was symmetrical. This layout uses mostly the same plants just puts them in different places. One addition to this plan is a miscanthus that I originally planted in the Japanese Maple garden. It was only placed there temporarily until a better spot…

We have three children in our household who love to be outdoors.  It’s extremely hard for this gardener to sneak outside without someone tagging along.  That’s a good thing! I’m thrilled that they love to be outside in the open air experiencing what all kids should have the opportunity to experience.  It’s important though that the garden be a safe…

Every now and then I take a look around the Gardening Blogosphere to see if there are any new Tennessee Bloggers. And every now and then I find a few! Of course I have to thank Gail of Clay and Limestone for finding DP at Squarefoot Gardening. One of the great things about garden blogging is that each gardener has…

Sometimes the weather makes stops our plans, sometimes it changes them, and sometimes we just don’t let it stop us! Such was the case for Healing Magic Hands who braved the rain to bring us fall color. Japanese maples, American cranberry bushes, and many other fall foliage plants enticed her out of her house and into her garden while the…

To find out the winner of the $100 Gift Card from the Home Depot watch the video!  I pulled in an unbiased assistant in to draw the names.My apologies for the camera quality, my video camera is getting a little older. 😉

The garden is gearing up for growth are you ready?  Have you prepared the garden and gotten everything set to grow?  I haven’t but the warm weather is going to be here this weekend and I’ll be making some headway into my garden’s preparation.  When to prepare the garden varies depending on where you live but several of these tasks…

These two crepe myrtles are holding strong to their color. Although these bright red and orange beauties are not mine, I did manage to get a couple seedlings from them to plant in my yard. Most people think of crepe myrtles for their summer flowering colors, but these two are evidence that there is more to a myrtle than meets…

This post will mostly be a show and tell for my seed starting progress. If you haven’t started your seeds yet you still have time to get them going. Starting from seed is an easy way to save a few dollars in your vegetable garden budget. A pack of tomato seeds might cost you $2-3 and you get 20-30 seeds…

Spring is in full swing and we all know that gardener’s everywhere are flocking to garden shows across the United States. This weekend is the Bloom ‘N’ Garden Expo in Williamson County presented by the Williamson County Master Gardeners. It’s hard for plant nuts to restrain themselves at these festivals and like everyone else I always bring home something –…

Recently I was asked to take a look at some reusable plant tags from the Allsop Home & Garden company. The idea sounded pretty neat – plant tags that can be written on, washed off, and then reused. They would make great markers for herb gardens or vegetable gardens. In the mail I received six plant tags and six stakes….

Yesterday evening we had storms. Heavy winds and rain knocked down sunflowers and pretty much every perennial planting over 2 feet tall that wasn’t staked up. If it could catch the wind – it did. Unfortunately our Bradford pears remained in tact – I’ve been looking for an excuse to take them down, one of these days they will break……

This week has been eventful. I haven’t been able to post much about the garden due to the happenings here but I did want to catch everyone up on how things are growing.  Here’s a quick update on the garden. The beans are climbing the bamboo trellis I put together.  I gathered it up from a roadside where someone had…

Ice and trees do not mix well. A fact that we’re seeing all over Tennessee. The recent ice storm that barraged the state left people all over in varying states. A lot of people lost power due to fallen trees and ice. A lot of people also lost favorite trees on their properties. Which brings up the question: should you…

The other day I posted about the next evolution of my garden on its way to becoming a more formalized vegetable garden. Today I’ll show you the layout of what I hope the vegetable garden will eventually become. There are some distinct advantages to the layout changes that I am planning on making that I’ll share with you below the…

I invited native plant expert and advocate Benjamin Vogt to write a guest post on attracting bees to the garden with native plants. I hope you enjoy it! -Dave This morning, once the sun hit the main garden, I took my video camera outside. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, recording the most active part of the day in…

It’s amazing how much is growing right now. I feel like all of a sudden everything has emerged in one moment of synchronicity. From the trees and shrubs to the perennials – something is happening everywhere I look. It’s exciting, yet exasperating as there just isn’t enough time to get everything done or talk about a fraction of everything happening…

As previously mentioned in my 2009 garden project list I am working on a self sowing garden. I mentioned the advantages to a self sowing garden earlier in the week and my own personal reasons for wanting to plant it and now it’s time for the next step…seeds. But first, what are self sowing plants? Since plants generally reproduce from…